Chimney sweep and fireplace cleaning in Lorna Doone
Local sweeps for fireplaces, wood stoves and inserts in Lorna Doone, each cleaned the way its maker intends.
- Licensed & insured
- Locally run
- Family owned and operated
- Same-day service available
Parts of the fireplace we clean in Lorna Doone
- Firebox, grate and old ash cleaned out
- Visual check of everything the brushes reached
- Metal chimney cap removed and reset per its maker
- Glass doors and frame cleaned after brushing
Our approach to chimney sweeping in Lorna Doone
Brushing the smoke chamber above the damper
Above the damper, the smoke chamber funnels smoke from the wide firebox into the narrower flue. Its walls slope inward, and deposits collect on those slopes where a straight flue brush passes them by. A factory-built fireplace has no masonry smoke chamber, and its metal transition above the firebox is cleaned the way its maker directs.
The Florida Building Code calls for the inside of a masonry smoke chamber to be parged smooth with refractory mortar. A smooth surface brushes clean. A rough or stepped surface, with brick edges showing, holds soot on every ledge and takes more work to clean.
Our technicians brush the smoke chamber from below with a brush shaped for its angled walls, then look at the parging once it is visible. Missing or crumbling parging becomes a separate repair item for your Lorna Doone home, while the sweep still cleans what is there.
A blocked chimney full of leaves or debris
A blocked flue cannot carry smoke out. Leaves blown into an uncapped flue, twigs from a nest, fallen tile or a thick collar of creosote can each close off part of the passage. The first sign is often smoke at the opening when a fire is lit, or debris dropping into the firebox.
Do not light a test fire to see if it clears. Our crew finds the blockage from the top or bottom, removes it with rods and hand tools and brushes the whole flue afterward, since whatever caused the blockage usually left deposits along the way.
If the blockage turns out to be an active nest or an animal, the sweep waits for the right removal, and wildlife work is quoted on its own. For a blocked chimney in Lorna Doone, the written estimate names what was found and what would keep it out next time, which is often a cap.
Pieces of flue tile in the debris
Most of what comes down a flue during a sweep is soot and creosote. When the debris also holds curved pieces of clay tile or chunks of mortar, the lining above has started to come apart.
The Florida Building Code describes clay flue lining laid in refractory mortar, with tight joints left smooth on the inside. A cracked or shifted tile, or a joint that has lost its mortar, breaks that smooth path, and no amount of brushing puts it back.
Any fragments found are set aside and shown to you, and the lining is looked at as far as it can be seen once it is clean. Flue repair or relining goes on the estimate for your Lorna Doone chimney as its own item, and the fireplace should stay unused until that decision is made.
Heavy smoke from the chimney top
Look at the top of the chimney once a fire is going well. EPA guidance says properly installed, correctly used wood-burning appliances should generate very little smoke. Thick smoke pouring from the chimney top well after startup usually points to a fire starved of air, wet wood or both.
That same smoke is where creosote comes from. Whatever does not burn in the firebox travels up the flue, and part of it condenses on the walls before it reaches the top. A chimney that smokes heavily every time it is used is building deposits every time too.
Our crew sees the result on the brushes. When a flue in Lorna Doone shows the heavy, sooty buildup that goes with smoky fires, we explain what to change at the firebox before the next fire.
Other work in Lorna Doone
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Chimney sweep questions in Lorna Doone
What happens if you find damage during the sweep?
We stop, show you what we found and explain what it means for using the fireplace. Each repair goes on the written estimate as its own line, and nothing is fixed or charged without your approval.
Will a sweep fix a fireplace that smokes?
It fixes the part caused by deposits in the flue. A damper that does not open fully, a clogged cap screen or wet wood can also cause smoke, so we check those too and note the results on the written record.
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